Piastri Wins Epic 2024 Azerbaijan GP

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri survived an epic battle to win the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.

Piastri made a Lap 20 overtake on race leader, Charles Leclerc and survived an almighty tense scrap to take his second win of the season, ahead of the Monegasque as the pair fought off Sergio Perez.

Speaking post-race, Piastri described his race-winning move as “a pretty big lunge” which saw him “hang on for dear life” to the checkered flag.

George Russell benefitted from a late collision between Carlos Sainz and Perez to take third under a late virtual safety car, whilst Lando Norris drove from 15th on the grid to fourth ahead of his title rival – Max Verstappen.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished sixth ahead of the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, whilst Lewis Hamilton recovered from a pit-lane stat for a power unit to take ninth and Haas’ Oliver Bearman rounded out the top ten.

Bearman’s tenth-placed finish saw him become the first driver to score points for two different teams in his first two F1 races.

In the drivers’ standings, Verstappen’s title lead over Norris was trimmed to 59 points with seven rounds left.

McLaren meanwhile took the lead of the constructors’ standings from Red Bull by 20 points.

At lights out, Leclerc made a clean start to lead Piastri whilst Perez and Verstappen cleared Sainz and Russell for third and fifth respectively.

Further back, Lance Stroll suffered a front-left tyre puncture after he clipped the right-rear of Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 4, which ultimately forced Tsunoda to retire with damage.

Norris meanwhile opted for the alternate one-stop strategy of starting on the hard tyres which saw him get up to 10th by the end of Lap 8, before Williams’ Franco Colapinto opened the pit-stop window on Lap 11 for medium tyre runners.

Up front, Perez was the first frontrunner to pit on Lap 14 but couldn’t undercut Piastri who pitted two laps later, followed by Leclerc then Sainz as the initial top four stayed the same once most medium runners pitted and cleared Alex Albon.

Albon and Norris though were difficult corks in the bottle on the hard tyre, as Albon first held Piastri, Perez and Sainz up before he helped his friend – Norris back Verstappen up into the clutches of Russell.

That strategy worked as Albon pitted on Lap 32 once Verstappen was within Russell’s sights, and the Brit cleared Verstappen into Turn 1 just two laps later.

At the front of the field, Piastri once cleared Albon quickly caught and passed Leclerc into Turn 1 on Lap 20 for the lead, which in-turn led to a tense three-way fight as the Aussie stubbornly held up Leclerc with Perez in hot pursuit.

Piastri’s robust defence eventually brought Sainz into the mix for victory in the closing laps, but he ultimately managed to broker a gap to take his second race win of the season from Leclerc.

Russell finished third after Sainz passed Perez out of Turn 1 on the penultimate lap only for the pair to collide on the exit of Turn 2.

Norris finished fourth with a Lap 49 overtake on Verstappen, who had to settle for fifth ahead of Alonso, Albon, Colapinto, Hamilton and Bearman.

F1 now heads to Marina Bay next weekend from 20-22 September for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	51	1h 32m 58.007
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	51	+ 10.910
3	George Russell	Mercedes	51	+ 31.328
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	51	+ 36.143
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	51	+ 77.098
6	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	51	+ 85.468
7	Alex Albon	Williams	51	+ 87.396
8	Franco Colapinto	Williams	51	+ 89.541
9	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	51	+ 92.401
10	Oliver Bearman	Haas	51	+ 93.127
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	51	+ 93.465
12	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	51	+ 117.189
13	Daniel Ricciardo	RB	51	+ 146.907
14	Guanyu Zhou	Sauber	51	+ 148.841
15	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	51	+ 1 Lap
16	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	51	+ 1 Lap
RET	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	49	Collision
RET	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	49	Collision
RET	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	46	Damage
RET	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	14	Damage